Football friendlies have bigger match-fixing risk, report finds

A report funded by the European Commission has found that lack of regulation makes football friendlies more open to the risk of match fixing.

Belgium.- A new report has highlighted the risk of match fixing in friendly matches in European football.

The report, funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme and led by the University of Nicosia Research Foundation, found evidence of suspicious activity in 250 football friendlies held in Europe between 2016 and 2020.

It also found that 26.5 per cent of 700 players from Cyprus, Greece and Malta that were questioned as part of the report said they suspected a friendly they had played in had been manipulated.

The report estimates that 26.3 per cent of match-fixing attempts were made by club officials and 15 per cent by players.

Entitled Combating Match Fixing in Club Football Non-Competitive Friendlies, the report concludes that football federations have been slow to define responsibilities for friendly matches, especially when they involve clubs from different countries playing in a neutral country.

It noted that some European football federations do not track clubs’ friendlies on pre-season and mid-winter tours.

According to its authors, the lack of regulatory oversight, free access to data and easy availability of bets on friendlies, especially in jurisdictions like Curaçao and the Philippines, means friendly matches have a greater risk of match fixing.

Lead investigator Professor Nicos Kartakoullis from the University of Nicosia said: “The combination of a lack of regulation, oversight and information makes these matches easier to manipulate than competitive matches. This research shows that in terms of governance, friendly matches need to be considered just like competitive matches.”

The report, which received input from the International Betting Integrity Association, recommends that the European football governing body Uefa oblige its 55 member associations to regulate friendlies.

It says match agents should, like player agents, be prohibited from owning or controlling clubs and that a new body should represent match agents in future regulatory negotiations.

It also calls for new data standards to prevent live match data on friendlies being sold to unregulated betting operators.

See also: IBIA reports slight increase in betting integrity alerts